If you talk to the animals
they will talk with you
and you will understand each other.
If you do not talk to them,
you will not understand them,
And what you do not understand
you will fear.
What one fears one destroys.
If you destroy the animals,
you will destroy yourself.

-Chief Dan George-
 

"The natural world and the animals within it speak to us everyday by their
appearances, behaviours, movements, and characteristic patterns. When we know what to look for, we can use them as omens—not in a superstitious sense, but in the development of true prophecy and higher perception." When we honor an animal, we are honoring its inner force and energy. When we allow ourselves to be open to that essence, then the animal can become our totem; it can be “our power, our medicine, or a symbol of a specific
expression of archetypal energy” that we can bring forth in our daily lives.
-Ted Andrews; Animal-Speak-

  Carl Jung suggests that animals represent the unconscious and belong to the earth.
Part of our spiritual quest, as human beings, is to reconnect with the earth—
a tie that may be lost or forgotten in our lives.

The belief in totem animals has been around for centuries. The Druids, for instance,
believed that animals go through life with you, while others may come and go as your life progresses. Just the same, the Native Americans believed that their totem animals protected and guided them throughout life. Often, when they reached adolescence, natives would go to a secluded place without food or water and await visions in order to discover their animal. Sometimes they would wait for days before their animal would manifest itself. Through visions, or within the spiritual domain, the native’s spirit would take on the animal’s shape, including its emotions, behavior and power. For instance, it was believed that warriors
would possess their animal totem’s abilities, such as the cleverness of the
wolf, or the farsightedness of the eagle.

     Many people in contemporary cultures shun these ideas or beliefs. However, these
same people rarely go outside. The majority of North Americans, for instance, are ritualized
in watching television for hours daily, site-surfing on the internet, shopping, and often working in windowless institutions. For many people, their life consists of working, eating,
and sleeping, and not much more. Perhaps the notion of totem animals, or simply the spirituality within nature itself, would be more acceptable and not so overlooked if people reestablished a connection with the earth. Besides, I do not know anyone who has not felt relief or serenity by simply sitting by a lake, ocean, forest, or stream and paying attention and listening to those small details that so easily go unnoticed and unheard. It is safe
to say that the very earth that sustains our survival and life
also nourishes our spirit. 


The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

-Robert Frost-